


my mind's like a deadly disease

by girlsarewolves



Series: tumblr askbox fills [8]
Category: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, DC Extended Universe, Man of Steel (2013), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Drunkenness, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, Tumblr Prompt, mention of vomit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-15 22:38:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18082265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsarewolves/pseuds/girlsarewolves
Summary: Mercy is privy to her employer's mood swings and eccentricities more so than anyone else. The Black Zero event brings out the side of him even she doesn't know that well.





	my mind's like a deadly disease

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheYearOfTheWolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheYearOfTheWolf/gifts).



> For the prompt: "Quidnunc - One who always has to know what is going on."
> 
> This kind of went all over the place, turned out totally different and then just kind of, stopped. And I was at a loss how to finish. So it kind of just abruptly ends, and I apologize for that.

* * *

 

They weren't even supposed to be in Metropolis this week.

 

Lex was supposed to be at a conference over in Gotham, but his attention had been...diverted, the moment aliens took over all television broadcasting to announce their existence and the presence of one of their own living on Earth. It sent what had been a side hobby bordering on paranoid obsession well into full blown obsession, though now it wasn't quite fair to call it paranoia anymore, not with aliens quite literally broadcasting 'you are not alone' on every screen on the planet.

 

Business took a backseat as Mr. Luthor delved into every bit of research he'd put together over the years concerning metahumans. 

 

She had thought that perhaps Gotham's sordid history and unspoken role as a nest for metas would be enough to get him over there on time - he could combine work and hobby that ultimately was more important to him than work with the trip across the harbor. But then she had been paged to Lex's father's study, where her boss had consumed far too much bourbon and wound up puking over his father's desk. It was not the first time she had come in there to find Mr. Luthor too inebriated to make it back to his room on his own, but it was the worst she'd seen him.

 

Lex Luthor Jr. was an eccentric, exceptionally private person. He played the part of a chatty and quirky trust fund baby with the brains to back it up, but he was much more shrewd than most would give him credit for, and not even a third as open as his peers found him to annoyingly be. He despised showing weakness to any kind of vice - his contempt towards another peer's habits and double life had made clear what Mercy had known for years just from being around her boss for so long - and so for anyone to see him slouched in the chair, vomit splattered over his father's ornate desk, every inch of him shaking as he stared at the stain of bile meant there was a level of trust that had reached the point of sanctity.

 

Mr. Luthor would never admit to any genuine or sincere fondness, but Mercy had never been interested in her boss liking her. Trusting her, on the other hand - that was the highest esteem.

 

"Oh, there will be hell to pay when he sees that," Lex whispered once she was at his side, helping him to his feet and steadying him when he started to list to one side. "Hell to pay, hell to pay - isn't that a funny saying? Hell to pay. But if you get on your knees and repent, there's no more hell to pay." 

 

Mercy was used to Lex's often theology, philosophy, or history inspired ramblings, especially whenever his father's memory entered the picture. While she was not privy to the exact details of her employer's past, she had pieced together enough to know that Luthor Sr. had not been the doting family man he'd used to help market Lexcorp and the Luthor name. So it was never too surprising to find that Lex spending time in his father's study often led him towards sullen moods and overindulgence in bourbon.

 

Lex continued to ramble to himself as she led him out of the room, only to then grab her shoulders, staring her in the eye as he whispered, "I am sick of repenting on my hands and knees. No red boots on my back anymore." His eyes bore into hers as he spoke, something haunted and frantic in them, an intensity that she had rarely glimpsed but knew he possessed, deep down under layers of eccentricity and quirky, nerdy, affable awkwardness. And then he smiled, the intensity muted by the fake grin spread across his face, eyes watery and bloodshot and becoming unfocused. "Have I ever told you that you are taller than a willow tree, Mercy? My, my, so tall. Tall and sturdy, aren't you?"

 

"Of course, Mr. Luthor," Mercy replied softly, smiling back to humor him and managing to resume guiding him back to his room. "I'll have someone clean up your desk."

 

"Mmm, hhm, hhm, no, no, not my desk, Mercy. Dear ol' Dad's. Please take care of it soon, I would hate to leave it like that for too long, he might rise up from the grave to give a lecture - oh, he could lecture like a preacher, did I ever tell you that?" Lex lean into her, stumbling a little. "Like a catholic priest, oh, they do so love to preach the fire and brimstone unless you give, give give - and not time, not work, just money. Always money. You buy your way into heaven through them, you know. Confess to a window, pray a little price, and you're good as a newborn, until the next sin anyway. What a scam, what a sham. And it's all for naught - how do you reconcile Jesus with genocidal aliens? Mmm, hhm, that's got to be a tricky sermon coming up across the planet. Thank the Lord that faith is blind."

 

Mercy let him ramble on as she got him to his room, sprawled out on his bed, talking to the ceiling as she removed his shoes and prepped his nightstand with aspirin and a glass of water.

 

"Set up all the televisions to record every news broadcast," Lex ordered, sounding startlingly sober, focused. "I want every paper in the morning. Get full damage reports. Not just for us. For the whole city. And I want an up to date death toll when I get up."

 

"Of course, Mr. Luthor."

 

He laid there, staring at the ceiling, and from her experience as his assistant, there were thousands of threads running through his mind, all tying back to these invaders, to his father, to the open secret of the meta humans that existed. Already he was seeing it all as a puzzle, one he would want to put together and then scatter off the table, just to feel the comforting relief of control. That was Lex's greatest requirement, and why Mercy's quiet, often unquestioning loyalty and obedience had earned her the position at his right hand - despite their volatile first meeting.

 

Because she made him feel in control.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> So the very vague reference to Lex and Mercy's meeting is a very vague allusion to something based on how they first met in the Superman animated series, where Mercy almost successfully stole from Luthor. I am particularly fond of this backstory.


End file.
